Instructor Led Courseware

[AngO]

Looking for input on available instructor led courseware.

We are looking at changing our books this summer, and would appreciate any feedback you might have to offer.

The books we have used in the past and are comparing are:
Custom Guide
Computer Prep
Element K

We are more interested in the "print on demand" type that we can purchase per year.

Thank you.
AngO

 

[Dreamboat]

Can I *really* give my opinion, AngO? Write your own.

http://www.TheWordExpert.com

 

[AngO]

Dreamboat -
I know, if only I had the time to do so. . .

I have issues with each of these brands, which is why I was asking. Thought maybe it was just me being picky.

As a team - we could write some GREAT books, huh?

AngO

 

[Dreamboat]

Very possibly. You know what I hate about *those books*? (*Those books* referring to any instruction books I've seen, and I've seen a few.) For instance...

. Access: They have the user start with a database that already has fields in it. It's some marketing thing or other. The average person knows nothing about marketing! I generally end up having them create their own little database of family members. The books talk about normalization for 2 minutes, but creating fancy forms for 15 minutes...

. Word: Mail merge is an ADVANCED feature. Can you figure that one out?? But creating a template using styles is introductory...

. Excel: The first sample file has headings in rows 4 AND 5, and the row labels start in column B. Oh, great... But do they teach a VLOOKUP with named ranges? Heck, no...

I have always thought how cool it would be to teach, in one-hour stints, concentrating on a specific feature or task. Take only the ones you NEED to perform your job. Perhaps 3 of those per night. In the course of a month, you could pretty much cover the basic NEEDS. (Of course, this would have to be preceded with Windows & Windows Explorer. Egads, I had to teach a class of 4 in Windows and NONE of them had ever touched a mouse. What fun! After all that, they probably remember how to put a picture on their desktop, LOL.)

Anyway, I've always thought that a good training course would also include a little bit of troubleshooting--and that is NEVER included. I've thought about writing training manuals for helpdesks; all the how-to's and troubleshooting stuff so they could walk a user through anything. Maybe even a newsletter-type thing. Build a little DB around it that they get with the first batch, send them the files each month, somehow have the files stored in a specific folder, and *registered* into the DB. Hmmm...that actually sounds like a good idea. LOL!

I think of the number of little companies out there with the network guy who's supposed to *know* all this stuff 'cause he's the techy. And maybe he learns a little here and there, or was even a user himself. Boy, I hope they're coming here and asking questions. There's so much to be learned.

Wow, I've gone on and on.... happy day, AngO

http://www.TheWordExpert.com

 

[AngO]

Dreamboat,
Thanks for the feed back, I have taught out of 4 different brands. Each has 1 (and usually ONLY 1) good feature . . such as layout, content, examples & exercises, etc. Most of the time, they seem to skip around; and not teach the "related" items at the same time.

Excel -Advanced Filters (need criteria), but then don't talk about Database functions until several chapters (even levels) later!! By the time you get to the second "related" item; they have forgotten the important parts of the lesson.

Most of the classes I teach are full day classes; and for a lot of the students I have - 6-8 hours is TOO MUCH information at one time! It seems that they always assume they are ready for one level higher than they really are.
How wonderful it would be to be able to customize the content and the length to a productive level!

Well, best be working on the best alternative; and making a decision on books soon. Thanks for the feedback!!
AngO